Well I was saddened, more than usual, by your last editorial
dated July 21, 2009. I am sorry that that you have such a low
opinion of our city administrators and elected officials. I meant
to write to you when you wrote the very disrespectful editorial
about our mayor last month but I have been busy with life.
By Carol Lenoir
Well I was saddened, more than usual, by your last editorial dated July 21, 2009. I am sorry that that you have such a low opinion of our city administrators and elected officials. I meant to write to you when you wrote the very disrespectful editorial about our mayor last month but I have been busy with life. Again, like so many times before, let me remind you that council members step up for their community. The pay is, I think, around $500 per month and maybe they go to some training or a conference once in a while. Although in examining the payables I see very little of that going on and I read them every week. This council has been the most frugal I have ever seen.
Now on to your editorial.
“While in crisis mode inefficiencies must disappear.” Where you been? We have done everything we can to cut back for the last eight years through attrition and attention to the bottom line for service and supplies. This City Manager not only saw it coming but was very proactive from the get go. You would have been broke three years ago instead of next year. The city did extensive restructuring of our finances; it was a mess under the last administration; I’ll admit to that and I was happy with the reports I was reading in 2002, but if there is one area that the city improved upon it’s in their banking area.
“Bold ideas and creative …” Again where you been? I don’t know how much more creative a general plan and zoning ordinance can be than the ones we adopted recently. It looks to the future bringing a mix of uses not only to downtown but the very core surrounding it. We raised the density around old town to allow the building of more affordable units in the private sector. Redevelopment has helped many of the “sustainable businesses” you refer to in this editorial. The RDA has assisted the Hollister Downtown Association for at least a decade now; they survive in part from the city’s partnership.
“Once flush general fund reserve.” Take a look around at any city/county in the State of California and they too once had a flush general fund reserve. This depleting of funds is not exclusive to the City of Hollister and I can guarantee what you may deem flush to us is a drop in the bucket to other surrounding cities/counties. Please do you homework on the on the County of San Benito’s tax split and the City of Hollister’s portion of that. In fact, I would like you to do that soon for the benefit of the hard-working taxpaying residents and don’t forget to include the reassessment of property taxes that is also making our revenues decline not to mention that recently passed state budget.
“Measure T’s Expiration.” Ever since we were smart enough to help ourselves, through a sales tax increase, you have done nothing but bad talk the voting people’s efforts. It was an election by the people and you should respect their wishes. They were bright enough to know they needed to help themselves and their city. Some of them even support our efforts; in fact it’s probable more than you would like to admit or even know about.
“The plethora of residents who would foot the bill” … Hello! That’s what running for election is for isn’t it? A lot of people don’t run anymore because they don’t want their names drug through the once a week Free Lance. I loved Marty Richmond’s excuse last year for not running. He said he could more effectively critique the system if he wasn’t on the council. I laughed for weeks because that’s what those positions are for – critiquing and taking action. I can tell you that no one, on staff, gets in the face of the city manager more than me. God bless him – he probably wants to choke me every time I ride him about our sewer and water bill; but he is without a doubt the most approachable gentlemen I have ever met and had the pleasure of working with. Is he perfect, except for the T-shirts? Almost. Since you just can’t let the T-shirt go, let me put it in a different perspective for you. You’ve had and continue to have salary savings from this city Manager. Remember I said a while back he did the city manager’s job for almost two years at his city engineer’s pay. He saved you almost a $100,000 right there with the one generous effort. I have told him repeatedly that he should just move on and take his huge engineering experience and State of California stamp and go work in the private sector and make twice the money with a fraction of the headache and criticism. Even in these tough times he is still worth a very good wage. Why? Because he is smart, very smart, and very hard working. You never had a city manager that worked this hard; aside from Roger Grimsley, who wore many hats at his job, but he was just a fraction of the hurdles facing city managers of today and a much more respectful news reporting source.
Yes this is long; but it’s my last one. I retire next year and not because I don’t like working for the city, I love my coworkers, but I have grown weary of the constant complaining. I just wasn’t raised like that and I find it very immature and the older I get the harder it is to take and I have done a great job ignoring you the past year.
“Three of the current council members had the business nonsense last year to approve across the board, now regrettable, pay raises.” They took their beleaguered, understaffed, overworked crew and gave them a little COLA; we paid, ourselves, for the enhanced retirement benefit because most of us don’t qualify for social security. I didn’t see you supporting us when our checks went down for three years in a row for increased health care cost and we gave up COLA a couple of years ago. I am sure you make them feel “regrettable” sometimes for running for the council with your constant criticism of them; except for Councilman Gomez; you seem to have really taken to him and I can understand why. However, I also see the worth in the other members as well.
I am almost done. When you direct your nasty comments regarding city administrators, in general, are you including Clay Lee because brother them are fight’n words, and lastly, don’t sit by your phone waiting for it to ring so that you can fix all our problems because even your organization has struggled to provide a once a week paper. You laid off your best journalist in Mark Paxton because he understood the city workings and now you are void that expertise. And even though Bob Valenzuela was rough on us sometimes I miss him because he has intelligence and class and gave us a pat on the back sometimes when we earned it. Too bad for you and too bad for us, as a community, that these two men no longer for your organization. Also, when I took time on my break on Tuesday to come and get the names of the Editorial Board I was asked for my name and phone number and was met with skepticism and never did receive the information. When I called today, I was told that the editor said I could look in the paper to get all the names. Just so you know, when you call City Planning you don’t get that response ever; it’s just totally unacceptable.
Carol Lenoir, Hollister
